Remember that you'll still require a set of 15mm rods to mount, so take advantage of those Gini auctions. I'm guessing with the popularity of this new FF, even those prices might change a bit. (Luckily I ordered three kits earlier this month).

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31 thoughts on “Budget Follow Focus Review”

Finally received it yesterday..I also had the shoot35 and the d-focus v3 but sold them (and rent zacuto, red rock).

First impressions:

It's cheap and it feels cheap, it's like a toy. The black aluminum is nicely finished but the rest is a joke.

After 5 minutes of playing with it something "clicked" internally and everything got screwed. I had to open the gearbox and re-assemble the whole thing, on the other side it was kinda fun 🙂

There's no "dampening", there is some resistance because of the grease but that's that, practically none.

Easy to switch the gear from side to side.

Kinda bulky, but pretty light(350gr)

After 2-3 hours the main gear was detached from it's shaft, I glued it, pretty simple, but still, ridiculous.

It was an adventure and felt like it. For the price I guess it's ok, but most of the people are expecting the product they're buying to be working. I spent 3-4 hours in order to actually make it work.

I'll try getting some thicker grease and test it a bit more.

The Shoot35 is a proper ff, no comparison there(it also costs 5 times more), but it was too heavy for hand held work, at least for me.

The D-focus is the only ff with no backlash at all, but the open gearbox and the lack of feel are major issues. On the other side it's the lightest one, so if you're doing lots of hand held work this might be the choice for you.

The gears are also a joke, i glued some rubber bands on the inside, they kinda work now, but I'll probably stick with the shoot35 ones.

If I had to value this ff, I would probably say 100-120$ max.

If I had to choose between the dfocus and this one, and only IF their price was the same I would probably get the Dfocus, just to be sure. (I ended up paying 220$ for the DFv3 plus 2 shitty gears, from express35.com, which is expensive for the overall quality, 130-150$ would be more acceptable).

So, in conclusion, if I could return it at a local store and get a refund I would, but the fuss sending it back to China made me keep it. It is what it is..a backup 🙂

I ordered one….got it yesterday…..and it has waaaay too much slop in the gearing internally. The travel in terms of the outside of the witness ring is over 1/2″ slop. This is completely unacceptable! There seems to be no way to adjust this. Mine is going back.
Pete

i'm not worried about the sellers themselves per say - i'm confident i'll receive the item. what concerns me is the quality of the product. it's logical to me that they are all coming from the same factory but who knows (only jinfinance is indicating a delay in shipping). also noteworthy is that there is no feedback in these other sellers profiles specifically about the follow focus. but if i get the product sooner (and with an extra gear as a bonus) then i might take the risk...

anyway, this is a fantastic site, thanks for all the info. and your hard work.

@minguy - The ones with the most 'feedback' from eBay are the good ones. They aren't dumb enough to risk a well maintained account to sell something that cheap. They've been sellers for a while and experienced with products. I don't think they are knock-offs. I would stay clear from the ones who just 'recently' setup eBay accounts or have low feedback.

@Alksion - I saw the one selling for $35, and I can tell you it costs more than that to produce just 1. You have a brand new seller (just registered) claiming to have several of these in stock. Looks like a scam and I'd stay clear from that.

Has anyone notice the one selling for $35 and 22 of them sold?
Usually something is too good to be true, so I stayed clear of that.

I am a little bummed that i didn't order it when I saw it for $120, but I wanted to be sure it was worth it, this video confirmed it for me. Even though I have to pay the extra $36, it is worth the peace of mind for me.

Just got mine and it had a little bit of slippage, I removed the 4 hex bolts that hold the gearbox onto the sliding rail, and tightened down 2 set screws that hold the gear to the shaft, and now it works fine.

Paul H...do NOT buy the Ikan FG Follow Focus Cine Kit. It has a very nice build quality (all metal...feels good in your hand) but the play or backlash is HORRIBLE. When I opened the box and did the two-handed test I was astounded and would've laughed if I hadn't have dumped 399.99 into it. I recorded about a 1/2 inch of play. Achieving critical focus was impossible.

I contacted Ikan and they said that there is no way to adjust the play but they would replace it for me. I tried to inquire about how much play is customary but I got no response. Needless-to-say...I didn't want to chance it and sent it back for a full refund. From what I've seen in Darren Levine's review...the limited amount of play in the RJ follow focus BLOWS Ikan out of the water.

Mine came this morning! (ordered 6/13, arrived 6/22, paid mid price of $130). I agree with everything the video reviewer said- wow nice build quality ! Small and large lenses work with no problem. And in regard to the question of does it fit on a Gini rig- my rig is mostly Gini and it fits without a hitch. I know the price is going up but it is STILL a deal at $140 because the size and build quality is fantastic.

Looks great. i'll order one this week. But maybe I'll wait for them to come out with rails for it before doing so. If the back side of the knob is metal, I think an easy way to create hard stops (which i like for one man band operation) would be just to put long magnets on the back that would be stopped by the needle on top. Anyone see a reason why that wouldn't work? Other ideas?